Design Communication: Speaking the Language, pt. 3

In the previous two posts, we informed our design communication based on some learnings from the field of linguistics. Those posts explored linguistic concepts of registers, semiotics and Zipf’s Law. Today’s subject is related, though it bears more on design itself than on communication. We’ll apply the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis and linguistic relativism.

Linguistic relativism, the moderated, consensus model stemming from the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis, explains how much of how people think is informed by the language in which they do their thinking. One common example involves how speakers of languages with different words for basic colors do a better job of sorting those colors according to those categories. Another is how some languages use cardinal directions instead of relative directions like left and right; speakers of these languages demonstrate superior navigating skills. It’s not that concepts outside of a language are inaccessible to its speakers, but they may require more effort to understand. An English speaker might not grok the idea of schadenfreude, but bringing in the translated word still feels like a foreign concept.

In the previous examples of the differences between “furnish” and “provide” with the attendant concept of “install,” we saw an instance where the field has specific terms that may be different from plain language. Being aware of those differences not only helps us speak the language of construction and effectively convey the scope limitations; that awareness also helps us frame our own thinking about scope limitations.

Among the abbreviations, acronyms and initialisms we saw last time, there were several that hit at the status of equipment, particularly in renovations. “OFE” (owner-furnished equipment), “OFCI” (owner-furnished, contractor-installed), “ETR” (existing to remain), “MOD.” (modify), “R&R” (remove and replace) and “NIC” (not in contract) exist not only as abbreviations to be defined but also categories of how equipment is to be scoped. Add in other concepts such as remove or demo, new, remove and abandon and we have a full suite of expressions for just what kind of work is to be performed.

Having terminology for these gives us categories for not just the communication of these ideas but more fundamentally for establishing in the design the work to be performed. Just as language stands in to describe human experience, so too does the language of construction encapsulate the workflows of the construction industry. Having a precise vocabulary allows us to have precise design thinking, and that precise thinking paired with that precise vocabulary allows us to have precise design communication.

Learning to speak the language of the other trades in the construction industry is important for those other trades to understand our designs. But this is no mere translation of our design into their language. Learning their language informs our concepts so that their way of thinking is parallel with how we have developed our designs and the designs are intrinsically native to how they will perform their work.